Witches, Goddesses, and Ferrets
by ILoveMantaRays
Summary: A story about a new girl named Laure who comes to Hogwarts in search of friends, but gets more. Has a lot to do with the Greek myths, you'll see... Good times. :P
1. Schools, New People, Common Rooms

'**Lo. This is my first Harry Potter fanfiction. I don't own any of the characters in Harry Potter, but I did make up some of my own characters. ;) I hope you enjoy it, and please let me know if there are any mistakes, so I can take them out... obviously... Another thing, there are a few jokes that poke fun at the French and its country. This is not to belittle the French in any way, it's just to add a bit of humor to the story. If you have a problem with this, I'll take them out accordingly. Thanks much.**

Laure Martin stared at the brick wall in front of her nervously.

'What the hell am I supposed to do?' she thought, slightly angry at the fact that no one had told her how to get onto some Platform 9 ¾. 'How can there even BE 9 ¾ of a platform? Ugh. Brits, always complicating things.'

To most Muggles, she probably looked pretty odd, standing there with a large trunk with an owl cage attached to it, wearing odd, light blue robes. Right now, though, she didn't care about the constant stares. All she cared about was how to get onto the blasted platform.

By the impatience she was showing with her body language, one could easily tell she was French. ((No offense to any frogs. XD)) Her features, aside from those abnormalities, were prominent and that of an eagle – sharp, precise, to the point. She brushed a loose strand of dark brown out of her face, revealing bright yellow eyes flickering about. Laure searched furiously for any sign of magic-related people.

As if on cue, a boy with very tidy, platinum-blonde hair and an arrogant smirk strode through the area as if he owned it. Behind him were two, large, dumb-looking cohorts who were both pushing a huge cart that held three trunks.

"Ses copains," breathed Laure in her native language. "His buddies, I presume..." Already, even without knowing him, she didn't like him. Although his parents gave him rather nice features, she hated the look spread upon them, even if she was from France: pretty much the country of arrogance.

But, now was not the time to glare upon this handsome fellow, she told herself. She had to watch him like a hawk to see what he was about to do to get on the Platform. The boy took a few more arrogant strides before giving the "pimp nod" to his cronies and walking... straight through the brick wall.

'Well, that makes things a lot easier,' Laure smiled, as the other two behind him followed suit and went through the wall. After a few moments, she cautiously stepped through, unsure of what to expect. To her surprise, it felt like she were just walking through air with a pleasant breeze.

Immediately she heard the chugging, steaming Hogwarts Express in front of her. The Frenchie admired the craftsmanship for a moment, thinking, 'Nice work, Britain. Better than I thought you could do,' and headed off to load her trunk inside and find a good seat.

* * *

The train was surprisingly roomy for... well, a train. All the compartments had good seating, enough for four or five if one spaced properly. Unfortunately, almost all of the compartments were already full, Laure noticed as she walked by, glancing in each. One had many girls discussing something... all Laure heard was bits and pieces, like "so bloody hot" and "most of the Slytherin boys are, but they're just so mean!"

'No, no, no. Definitely not,' thought the girl firmly. She didn't want to deal with screaming girls all day.

More compartments came and gone as she passed... one had a girl with bushy hair, talking fervently to a redheaded boy and a boy with glasses and dark hair; "So Snuffles hasn't sent anything new yet, at all?" she squeaked.

'Dear God. They've all gone mad...'

Another held a bunch of boys, first years, Laure guessed. They were all talking about how they expected to fail every class, how they didn't want to be sorted, how they wanted to be in the same house as their brother.

"I really hope I don't get Slytherin!" said one fretfully.

There was that word again, what did it mean? If anyone was confused, it was the French girl. She didn't stop to ask, however, she just continued on, until she found a seemingly empty compartment. With a sigh of relief, Laure sat down with her eyes closed, happy to have found somewhere before the train began to move. It was when she opened her eyes that she realized she wasn't alone.

Across from her sat, (to her dismay) the boy she'd seen at King's Cross, and quite possibly one of the ugliest girls she had ever seen. 'No, wait, there was that hag in Bulgaria at that Quidditch match,' Laure corrected herself.

The girl was attached to the boy with extreme interest in his lips. Having not noticed the new arrival yet, she simply went on and on about herself in the most annoying voice. It was obvious that the feeling was not mutual; the boy leaned on his arm with an angry look in his eyes, one that screamed he'd rather be in hell than in the train with the atrocity clinging to his precious arm. It looked like he had given up on trying to get rid of her – resistance was, apparently, futile.

It was some time before he finally looked straight across from himself.

"What're you doing here?" he said, glaring, in an almost accusing tone.

"Oh, I'm sorry, _prime minister_, I thought it was empty. Clearly, it's not, but everywhere else is full," Laure said with a cultivated, fake sweetness. The lightest of French accents was detectable, but only in words with Rs and "th"s.

With a snuffy noise that sounded much like a pig, the ugly girl across from her said, "You could have found _another_ place, couldn't you? We're trying to have some alone time."

At that moment, the train rumbled, and started to move. None of the three in the compartment were the least bit perturbed by this sudden movement.

"No. We're. NOT," said the blonde in a dangerous voice through gritted teeth, beginning to shove her off his arm again. Alas, again, she persisted, and again, he gave up.

"If I didn't know better," Laure commented in the calmest voice she could muster, "I'd say he doesn't quite fancy you."

Ugly glared at her some more and with a unibrow furrowed, she growled, "GET OUT!"

"Gladly," Laure stood and walked out, only hearing...

"Good, now will you GET OFF??" barked the blonde.

"Oooooh, when?"

...and then she could only hear what was unmistakably muffled shouting as she made her way through.

After what seemed forever and she was thinking of giving up and just sitting in the hallway, Laure found an almost-empty compartment. It contained a single girl whose body was stretched out on the seat she was occupying. She appeared to be immersed in a book called, "Philbert Deverill: _Struggles of a Quidditch Manager_." Her acid green eyes scanned a book's pages quickly and with ease. On her stomach was a tan bag, the size of a large cheese wheel.

Laure pressed her lips together as if spreading lipstick around, and said in a quiet voice, "May I join you? Everywhere else is packed."

The other looked up suddenly, as if awoken by sleep, and said, "Oh! Sure, go right ahead." A cheerful smile spread across her face as she patted the seat across from her.

"Ah, thank you," Laure said gratefully, and took the offered seat. "I'm uh, Laure. Laure Martin." She spoke her name the way a French person would, obviously.

"French? Wicked," the other girl set down her book beside her, and sat forward in her seat, placing the bag delicately beside her. "My name's Sonya Torrey, but I just go by Torrey most of the time."

Laure grinned, "Alrigh', Torrey. What're you reading?"

"Oh, just a book on this Quidditch guy. I'm trying to get myself into the sport's history, but I much prefer playing than reading about it..." Torrey said with a bored look. She added, as if to reassure herself, "Oh, but I love to read!"

Laure nodded, then her curiosity got the better of her. "What's in that bag, there?"

"This?" Torrey loosened it a little, and to Laure's surprise, a sleeping animal was inside. To her even greater surprise, it was... a raccoon. "It's my pet, name's Bandit."

The French girl's eyes were transfixed on the raccoon. A bit of awkward silence passed between the two before it was broken by girls talking.

"Oh, my GOD! He just left?" said one. The voices were drawing nearer.

"Yes," said the other one sadly, with a clear Scottish accent. "Said he wanted to be a famous Keeper for some pro team, which I guess I can understand. Oh!" The sources of the voices appeared in the doorway, along with one other person who had not spoken yet. One was a tallish, golden blonde, one had bright pink hair, and the third had auburn hair.

"There you are," said the pink-haired one impatiently. "We've been lookin' in practically every compartment for you, Torrey!"

"Oh, really?" Torrey looked apologetic. "Sorry about that... er... come in."

"Right," said the blonde, who walked straight in and took a seat. The pink-haired person sat next to Laure, and next to her was the blonde. Across sat the auburn-haired person.

The two that had been talking before began to speak to each other again heatedly, so Laure wasn't really listening to them at the moment. Her thoughts were on the first compartment she had got in to, the one with the boy and the hurt girl.

'Oh, that's right, there's actually people who are from the blasted school here.'

"Oi, Torrey," she said quietly, as the two next to her were still talking, "Do you know of a boy who's kind of arrogant, and he has this kind of white-blond hair, and-"

"Ugh. Yes," Torrey replied, her eyes showing immediate anger. "His name's Draco Malfoy, and he's a Slytherin. Let me guess, he was with a really ugly girl?"

"Yeah, he was, but he was shovin' her away... and what's Slytherin?"

"Mm... okay. There are four houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, which is for brave people basically... Hufflepuff, loyal people... Ravenclaw, smart and resourceful people (I'm in it)... and, of course, Slytherin, which is pretty much for jerks."

"I... see," said the brown-haired girl slowly. "How does one get into a house, do you have to audition?"

"Oh, no, no," said Torrey, laughing. "In one's first year, you get Sorted into the houses by the Sorting Hat. Like, one puts it on, and it says which house one'll be in, judging by one's mind, I suppose. Then, wherever the hat says to go, one just goes down to sit at one of the four house tables."

Laure only nodded. She couldn't speak; she was nervous again. Did this mean she, a fifth year, had to go up in front of everyone and wear some weirdo hat that would read her mind? The mere thought was enough to make her hope the train wouldn't stop.

"So, you're a transfer student?" said the auburn-haired girl.

Having almost forgotten she was there, Laure was surprised when she said, "Yeah, I'm from Nice, France. I used to go to Beauxbatons."

"Ah," she said. "I'm Kyung-Soon, by the way. I'm Korean, originally, but I don't even speak a word of it."

Laure grinned and replied with, "Laure."

The rest of the train ride (which wasn't very long), Torrey and Kyung-Soon told Laure all about Hogwarts with gusto. Once the bright red train had come to a stop, the prefects headed out to open the doors for everyone.

"Gotta go," said Torrey suddenly after changing into her Ravenclaw robes, which had a "P" pin on the front.

Laure walked outside, in pure awe of what she was seeing; people running every which way, a giant castle atop a lake, not to mention a giant man who was trying to corral little first years his way.

"First years!" he called continually, beaming at all the students as they came off the train.

"Who's that?" asked Laure, watching as he headed over to the lake.

"That's Hagrid, the Care of Magical Creatures professor," explained Kyung-Soon calmly. "Come on, we've better get to the carriages over here..." she gestured to a large sum of carriages with no horses or drivers in the front of them.

Laure followed the Korean girl into a carriage along with the blonde, the odd pink-haired person, and finally Torrey after a few minutes. They were joined in the roomy carriage by the three people she had seen earlier, discussing "Snuffles."

Instantly, as the dark-haired wizard got into the carriage (still paying very much attention to what the bushy-haired girl was saying), Laure recognized him.

'Dear God, that's Harry Potter!' she thought, trying not to be too obvious when she looked at his scar. She swallowed as the redhead came in, saying in a slightly high voice, "You don't reckon we could share, do you? The Slytherins are having a riot with most of the other carriages..." He suddenly took notice of Kyung-Soon. "Oh! K, I didn't see you there," he said, positively beaming. He stopped taking notice to what the bushy-haired person was saying, and took notice to Kyung.

"Not at all," said Torrey, nodding toward the Asian for him to sit next to her.

The blonde and pink-haired pair was talking once more, this time mentioning something about an "Oliver" and a lot more about Quidditch.

"'Lo, Ron," said K, blushing slightly. At that moment, Torrey leaned over toward Laure, saying, "They're not going out, but everyone knows it's bound to happen."

Laure laughed, and felt a lot more at home; she had some new friends, and she was in a carriage with the one and only Harry Potter, whom she thought she'd never meet in her lifetime. Vaguely, she recalled reading a book that said he went to Hogwarts School, but never really thought about it as she had boarded the train. But she felt a lot better, as she looked out the window at the lake and the castle.

* * *

'For a stone castle, this place sure feels warm,' thought Laure as she entered the Great Hall. In it were four, long tables, which she assumed were the house tables. A small stool sat in front of another long table at the end of the room. The table had many older people sitting at it., most likely the staff of the school. In the very middle was an old-looking man with half-moon glasses, and a beard long enough to tuck in his belt if he felt it necessary. He was watching the students with a twinkle in his eye and his hands cupped together. He waited until everyone appeared to be situated, then said, "Welcome to Hogwarts, students!" Laure, however, stood next to the huge double doors, not quite knowing where to put herself.

The doors burst open suddenly and out of them came a woman clutching a roll of parchment and a ragged hat, followed by two rows of first years. They were all gawking at the castle, the floating candles, the bewitched ceiling, the entire room. The room fell silent once the woman had reached the front of the room, next to the small stool. She cleared her throat, and said something to the first years about the sorting which Laure didn't quite catch.

"Now then," said the woman wearily as she unrolled the parchment. "Amelia Argent."

Amelia walked up to the stool nervously, constantly putting her black hair behind her ears. The old woman placed the ragged old hat atop the girl's head. It called out, almost instantly, "SLYTHERIN!" Applause erupted from the Slytherin table, farthest left from where Laure was. She noticed Draco Malfoy sitting there, the ugly girl on the other side of the table entirely. Across from him was a girl with black hair who looked positively evil. Laure shrugged the thought off, though.

"Theodore Bonnes."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Bridget Broadwell."

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The list drew on... "Leena Kamat."

"GRYFFINDOR!"

And on... "Henry Lute."

"SLYTHERIN!"

And on... "Laure Martin."

'Wait a minute,' thought Laure. 'Oh, GREAT.' With a sharp intake of breath, she strode between the two centre rows of tables. She made her way to the stool through the sea of first years, and took a seat, feeling much like a cat in the middle of a dog pound.

The old woman placed the haggard hat atop her head. Oddly enough, she could hear a voice in the back of her head... 'Ah, a good brain you've got, but qualities of a good leader as well... where to put you... hmmm...'

Laure swallowed, hard. 'How about Ravenclaw?' she thought miserably. She was so embarrassed...

'Right, then... if you're so sure...'

"RAVENCLAW!" the hat shouted, as the Ravenclaws began to cheer and applaud, after a few confused moments of wondering why on earth a fifth year was being Sorted.

Laure once again made her way through the first years as "Margaret Pim" got Sorted into Gryffindor. She couldn't see K or Torrey, but she did see the golden blonde with an empty seat next to her. "Why not," she breathed, taking a seat next to her.

"'Lo," she said, giving a nod.

"'Ello 'ello! Welcome to Ravenclaw! The name's Alexandra Artemis Hunt, but you can call me Alex or Artemis," said the blonde in one breath, cerulean eyes unblinking as she held out a callused hand. After a hearty handshake that nearly made Laure fall off the bench, she added, "You're name's...Laure right?"

"Yup," Laure nodded as she regained her balance. "So you're a fifth year, I suppose?"

'Why am I being so quiet?' Laure thought, a bit angry at herself for not saying more.

"Yeah, fifth years all the way! Woo!" Alex hooted excitedly, then coughed and turned serious when people around them started to stare. While watching "Reba Thatcher" become a Ravenclaw and clapping, she said, "So, yeah, so tell me about yourself."

'She must have read my mind!' Laure thought, relieved that she didn't have to start the conversation. "Right, then, let's see... well, my Mum's back in Nice – where I'm from – and she had problems, believe it or not, with the professors at Beauxbatons... so, she wrote to the headmaster here, figuring it was a good school." She paused and continued, "And it's pretty different here, because Beauxbatons isn't anywhere near as big as Hogwarts. Oh! I heard that there's house Quidditch teams here!! Is that true?"

"Mm-hm! I've been on the Ravenclaw team as Seeker since my third year," she said happily, her Scottish accent sounding very cute at the moment. Alex looked around at the tables and noticed a certain platinum blonde Slytherin. She continued to stare at him for some time before she was distracted by the last first year being called, and food suddenly popped up onto the tables. "Um... what was I saying?"

Laure followed her gaze to the boy. 'Oh, great. Draco...' she thought dismally as food appeared on her own plate. It took her quite by surprise, but Alex grabbed a roll - "Oh, right, I remember..." and continued chatting about the Quidditch teams, and every so often her eyes wandered over to the Slytherin table, her expression unreadable.

Right when they were in a deep discussion about Galvin Gudgeon and his current stats, Alex caught eye of the enormous clock on the wall and let out a high pitched squeak. "I've got to go," she muttered, dropping the chicken leg she was holding. "Nice meeting you! See you in the common room..."

Laure blinked in surprise and watched the Scottish girl run off to the Grand Staircase. Eventually, Laure stood as well, having finished her dinner and getting ready to find someone to follow to the common room. This was her lucky day, for Torrey had just run up to her.

"C'mon, I'll show you to the common room. Password's Dragon Fang," Torrey grinned and headed up the stairway with Laure following. They came to a moving staircase and waited for it to come to the right floor. A pair of redheaded twins came up behind them, and Laure listened to their conversation... just a little. No, she wasn't eavesdropping, of course not...

"Yeah, but Mum had a cow last time we tried to make those order forms again. And you _know_ she'll find them no matter how well we hide them," said one.

"Then we'll have to keep things quiet, and make sure ickle bickie Ron doesn't find out what's going on..." replied the other. The pair resumed their conversation once the staircase had come to their floor. They muttered something to a portrait of a fat lady, which swung open to let them in. Laure and Torrey, however, remained where they were until the staircase stopped at its last stop.

Torrey followed the stone corridor to the end. There on the wall was a painting of a dark blue raven.

"Password?" it inquired in a soft voice, much unlike that of a raven.

"Dragon fang," said Torrey. The portrait swung open just as the Gryffindor portrait had, revealing a large opening in the wall. Torrey walked in, turned around, and said, "Our dormitories are to your right, and the boys are to the left, in case you wanted to know." Torrey winked, and began toward the portrait hole again.  
  
"Where're you going, Tor?" asked Laure, surprised she was leaving already.

"Prefect duty. See you later, alright?"

Laure nodded numbly as Torrey ran off, wondering what the heck a prefect was. She shrugged her thoughts off and looked around at the room in front of her; it was very, very large, and rectangular in shape. On the right side of the room were a small fireplace and a long table with many comfortable-looking chairs gathered around it. On the left side was another fireplace, with a lot of, squishy leather chairs and sofas surrounding it. Only a few people were in the common room at the time, talking, unwrapping Chocolate Frogs, and dozing on one of the sofas.

Laure walked to her right, just as Torrey had explained. There was an upstairs and a downstairs, and she decided to choose the upstairs. There were three wooden doors, with a five, a six, and a seven on them, respectively.

'How about door number five?' thought Laure. She opened the door slowly, and almost screamed in surprise...

**Cliffhanger! Not really... XD Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the first installment – expect more soon! I.L.M.R.**


	2. Letters, Friends, Classes

**Hallo. Here's the second chapter, and I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters. Thanks for reading! **

'How about door number five?' thought Laure. She opened the door slowly, and almost screamed in surprise. In front of her was Alex with a death look in her eyes and a bow and arrow in her grasp. She was pointing them straight at Laure!

"Oh! Oh, my God! I'm sorry! I wasn't trying to kill you, I promise!" Alex squeaked suddenly, a hand over her mouth. "Are you alright?"

"Um," said Laure, eyes still wide in shock. "Yeah, I'm as fine as one could be after that little trauma…"

Alex looked very apologetic, and momentarily glomped Laure. "I'm sorry," she repeated, removing herself from the glomp and putting her hands on her hips.

"It's quite alright, really. What were you doing with a bow and arrow in here, anyw-" she glanced at the door and stopped talking altogether. On the door was a circular, wooden board with an arrow stuck directly in the centre, but that's not what she was staring at. Pinned to the board by the arrow, was a photograph of a very handsome-looking young man. Its corner read, "Love, Oliver." And suddenly Laure understood all the talking about "Oliver" from the train compartment.

"That's, er… my old boyfriend," Alex said, scratching the back of her head with one hand. "He's already graduated from Hogwarts… went to pursue a Quidditch career," the archer said with a bit more venom than she probably meant. She looked thoroughly embarrassed, then she cleared her throat and hastily changed the subject. "So, how d'you like the common room?" prompted the Scotswoman brightly.

"It looks really comfy," Laure replied with a smile as she looked around the room for her bed. Unlike the rest of the castle, the dormitory had hardwood flooring which made it seem warmer. There were five four-posters in the small, circular room, one of which had Laure's trunk at the foot.

With a sigh, Laure let herself fall on her bed. Suddenly reminded of her belongings, however, she sat up straight again and said, "Oh, yeah, where's my owl?"

"Owlery," answered Alex simply as she removed the arrow from the board with little effort. She paused, as if thinking about something, and threw her bow and arrows on her bed. Laure didn't notice her take out a small piece of parchment and a quill, nor did she notice her begin to scribble something down. Alex had a downright mischievous look on her face as she set her quill down and pulled a white ribbon from her hair, tying one end of it to the parchment. "I'll be back later," she told her, walking out of the common room with a glint in her eye.

Laure quirked an eyebrow, but then decided not to worry about it as she began to change into her PJs.

Draco Malfoy sighed as he lay on his bed with his hands behind his head. He stared up at the ceiling, bored with himself, not quite sure what to do when he heard a knock at his door. With a grunt, he stood reluctantly and reached out to open the door to the common room. Standing there were Crabbe and Goyle, looking at him with a bored and pleading look.

"What?" Malfoy barked slightly.

"We're bored…"

"Well, what do you want me to do about it? Ugh, get out of here before Pansy sees me and tries to death-hug me."

The two cohorts didn't even bother to nod as they walked away. Malfoy shut the door behind him, annoyed with the disturbance of his thoughts. Mainly, he was thinking about what was to come this year, but there was also a thought nagging at the back of his mind…

Another knock, which sounded more like a tap. 'They better not be back,' thought the platinum blonde, glaring at the door. 'If they want entertainment, they've got to fund it themselves.' He lay there for a few moments and then closed his eyes, almost nodding off to sleep when the tap came again, a bit louder this time.

Malfoy growled, eyes still closed, "What do you want?"

Another tap.

The Slytherin's eyes opened as he walked over to the door once more and opened it. There was no one standing there, he thought, until he heard small squeaking at his feet. He looked down. There, playing with a piece of white ribbon tied around its neck, was a pure white ferret. Malfoy froze, remembering his fourth year… how awful that Professor Moody had been, making him look like an utter fool… he, a Malfoy… he stared at the ferret, and noticed that attached to the white ribbon was a small slip of parchment. Malfoy hesitated before picking up the ferret gingerly and opening the slip. Written on it was the simple, unsigned message: "If you can handle a joke, you'll keep it."

Fury rose to his cheeks as he looked around wildly with angry silver eyes for anyone that would try to play a joke on _Draco Malfoy_. The mere thought made him angry, and at first his thoughts flew to… "Potter," the 15-year-old said in a deathly growl.

'But wait, how could a Gryffindor get into the Slytherin common room?' he thought. Remembering an instance in his second year, Malfoy thought of Polyjuice potion at once. 'But they would get caught if they tried that again…' He continued to look but found no one, not even Crabbe and Goyle, save a dozing first year on one of the couches. 'And he couldn't have done this, he's too young to know about my fourth year,' thought the teenager miserably.

A voice in the back of his head said, 'Well, might as well save your pride and keep it.' Malfoy nodded as if to reassure the voice, and walked back into the dormitory with ferret in hand. He set the little creature atop his trunk in the same ginger manner, and untied its white ribbon. 'The little thing isn't so bad,' he thought, as his silver eyes softened a little – a _little_. He looked at the ferret's bright blue, pleading eyes; for some reason, they told him this ferret was female. Malfoy straightened up, and shut the door to the Slytherin dormitory with a thud.

"Pawn to D-5," said a boy with untidy, jet black hair. He leaned over a table in the Gryffindor common room, Ron Weasley opposite him.

"Pawn to E-6. Cor, Harry, you walked into that one," said Ron, watching gleefully as his pawn shoved a sword through Harry's pawn. He removed the piece from the board and looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry blinked in surprise, having not noticed Ron's pawn nearby at all. Well, one couldn't blame him – his mind was mainly on Sirius, whether he was safe in his own house or not. Someone could find him, someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. Harry was also preoccupied with the Quidditch tournaments coming up, although he didn't know why – flying was the most natural thing in the magical world to him. So as one could see, he wasn't thinking about wizard's chess as much as he should have been.

"Who was that Ravenclaw girl you were talking to earlier, in the carriage?" said Harry, looking up from the game and up at Ron.

Ron's ears went pink as the expectant look on his face turned into an embarrassed one. "Her name's Kyung-Soon Park." A dreamy look became apparent in his eyes as he commented, "She's bloody brilliant. A Ravenclaw."

"I know, Ron, I just said that," Harry's eyes darkened. "I thought _I_ was the one who was supposed to like Ravenclaw Asians," he said teasingly, noticing the look in Ron's blue eyes.

As if he had been smacked in back of the head, Ron said suddenly, "Wha'? Ravencalw Asians? Who says I like her! She's just a friend of mine I met over the summer-"

"No one believes you, Ron, might as well give up," said a low female voice behind him. Ron was startled to see Hermione having arrived suddenly. She took a seat next to Ron and added, "And I saw the way you were talking to her in the carriage."

"Scary, you are. It's like when you kept popping up in random classes, and we never saw you come in! Righ', Harry?" Ron said, turning to Harry bewilderedly.

Harry and Hermione exchanged glances. He swallowed hard and finally replied, "Er, sure."

Ron nodded to reassure himself as Harry shoved the chess board out of the way so he could rest his arms on the table. Luckily, Ron had not protested, as he was busy thinking about K-Soon.

"Let's hear more, then," Hermione said firmly, placing a hand on the table. For once, she didn't have a stack of books, it being the beginning of the year.

"More about what?" Ron wasn't a very good liar.

"You know perfectly well, _what_," she shot him a look he knew all too well.

Harry rested his head on his arms as he listened to the redhead across from him with Hermione about who he could possibly tell them more about. His mind flew back to the carriage ride; who was there? There was he and Hermione, of course… Ron and Kyung-Soon… Alex Hunt, whom he knew from Quidditch… and three more girls he didn't know. One he had remembered quite vividly, as she had had magenta hair and electric blue eyes. The others were both dark-haired, one with yellow eyes and the other with acid green; one thing Harry prided himself on was his good memory.

He thought a bit more about the second girl. Harry had seen the other two before, he was sure, but this one was new to him. 'Ah, of course,' he thought. 'She was the older girl who was sorted into Ravenclaw…' Harry hadn't noticed the absence of his best friends squabbling as he pondered.

"Harry?" said Ron. "You alright? You haven't said anything in a while…"

Harry blinked and looked at Ron. "Yeah, I'm fine, just a bit tired… I think perhaps I'll head off to bed. 'Night, everyone." He nodded at the two of them and walked toward the boys' dormitories, eyelids drooping already.

The next day passed by quickly for Laure. She sat at the breakfast table that morning, still in awe of the Great Hall. The girl was just beginning to poke at some eggs as hundreds, maybe thousands of owls of all colors flew overhead, landing on the breakfast table, peoples' shoulders, others' arms. Laure watched as her own tawny owl landed on the table next to her breakfast plate; in its clutches was a piece of parchment with her parents' writing:

_Chère Laure,_

_Nous espérons que tu t'amuses à ton nouveau lycée. Ton père et moi, nous venons d'acheter une petite maison à Paris pour faire des vacances d'été! Nous espérons avoir bientôt de tes nouvelles. Protège-toi et n'oublies pas d'écrire fréquemment._

_Bons baisers,_

_Maman et Papa_

_Dear Laure,_

_We hope you are having fun at your new school. Your father and I have recently bought a new cottage in Paris for summer vacations! We look forward to hearing from you. Stay safe and don't forget to write often. _

_Love, _

_Mum and Dad_

She smirked and tucked the letter into the safety of her new, black, Hogwarts robes. Laure felt a disturbance next to her, and found that Alex had sat down right of her.

"'Lo, Alex," said Laure in a relaxed, yet cheerful voice.

"Hi!" managed Alex between enormous mouthfuls as she shoveled in eggs, sausage, and english muffins in less than a minute. The Scottish girl wiped her mouth off, threw the napkin onto the table, and began to run off. Waving, she said speedily, "Bye!"

"Er… bye," Laure's widened eyes watched Alex run away, when a great, red bird flew onto her shoulder suddenly. Alex stopped running to let the bird perch on her arm, staring at it proudly. It wasn't an owl; it was a bird the French girl had never seen before, and it looked wild, although it nipped affectionately at Alex's finger.

The Scottish girl returned to the table once more, beaming at her bird.

"What is it?" said Laure, incredulous.

"'s called a kestrel - a British bird, but they're seen in Scotland a lot. I got him for my fourteenth birthday, and now I just use him as an owl," Alex grinned, removing a letter from the kestrel's leg.

"That's brilliant!" exclaimed Laure, watching the kestrel as he scanned the room with his sharp eyes. "Does he have a name?"

"Oliver," said the exotic bird owner distantly. Her cerulean eyes looked off at the window in an almost wistful manner. Quickly, she returned to the letter and walked off again with a slight wave to Laure.

Later, Laure headed to Double Potions with K-Soon, as Torrey, Jinx, and Alex were nowhere to be found.

"And we've got this with the Hufflepuffs?" asked Laure uncertainly.

K-Soon nodded, "After this we've got Transfiguration with the Gryffindors, and finally Herbology with the Slytherins."

"We share classes like this all the time?" Laure raised an eyebrow at the peculiar method. The school seemed big enough, why not have separate classes?

"Pretty much," replied K-Soon calmly as she headed down to the dungeons with the French girl. She pulled open the rusty handle and entered the room, in which there were only about three or four students. Professor Snape was not in the room yet.

Laure took a seat next to K-Soon, getting ready the materials she would need in the class that day. More students filed in slowly, and once most of them had situated themselves, Professor Snape entered the room immediately and started writing on the chalkboard: "Chopped daisy roots, Skinned Shrivelfig, Sliced Caterpillar, One Rat Spleen, Dash of Leech Juice".

The Korean patiently added all the things needed in her potion, and finished before most of the others in the classroom. The girl sitting next to her, however, wasn't having as much luck.

"Oh, skinned _shrivelfig_. So that's why this potion isn't working," said Laure, frustrated at her ignorance. "It's different in French… blasted country…" she mumbled on.

The class drew on as Prof. Snape gave a lecture on the effects and dangers of properly mixed shrinking potions. The minutes crawled by until, FINALLY, it was time to leave. Laure and K-Soon made their way out of the dungeons and to the large stone courtyard. They heard footsteps behind them and turned around.

"Oi, where are you two going in such a hurry?" Alex jogged up behind them and walked beside. She had a vaguely dreamy look on her face, along with patches of pink on her cheeks as if she had just run a great distance.

"Uh… to class?" said K-Soon with a teasing grin. "Where've you been, I didn't see you in class. And where did you come from?"

"Me? Where have **I** been?" Alex asked, as if there were some mysterious unknown person she were addressing. "I've been, you know, busy."

"Busy?"

"Yeah, busy. McGonagall next?" Alex abruptly changed the subject, hoping to curb them from the thought that she might be somewhere else…

"I think so," Laure said tentatively. With a mischievous tone, she added, "We've got it with the Gryffindors… lucky you, K-Soon."

Immediately the Korean blushed and said, "What about Gryffindors? They don't even pay attention most of the time."

"Yeah, maybe because ONE is busy looking at you the whole time," said Alex plainly. She had currently been looking straight across the courtyard to the other stone corridor. Something had obviously caught her eye, for she suddenly said, "Okay mates, I've got to go-"

"Wait wait wait. Where are you going now?" Laure interrogated, but Alex had already quickly run off, rounding the corner to the girls' bathrooms. 'I wish I knew where she were going,' she thought.

Harry was immensely bored in Transfiguration; not only were they reviewing something they'd done ten times last year, McGonagall was also giving them a thorough lecture on it as well. Today seemed the day for lectures, as he'd already had one in his History of Magic class as well.

The Gryffindors had never had Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws before, so he was taking a look at the crowd. A few seats ahead of him was Kyung-Soon, the girl that Ron liked. Ron… Harry took a look at the redhead. Ron was leaning on one hand, staring straight at the Korean witch. He had that dreamy look on his face as if he were someplace far more pleasant than a Hogwarts classroom.

Harry's green eyes scanned the area once more, and found that, a ways left of him was the other girl from the carriage, and her name was… her name… 'What _was_ her name?' Harry was a bit perturbed at the fact that he actually didn't remember something. 'Oh well, I'll figure it out later.' He couldn't help but look at her for a few moments and wonder who she was…

The object of his staring, however, was trying her best to pay attention in class, but the window looked so inviting… she couldn't wait to get down to the grounds at lunch and explore them. From what her new friends were saying, the thing she wanted to do most was relax in the shade near the lake with everyone. That would be ideal.

With a sigh, the girl looked around to see if anyone else was really paying any attention. Aside from the bushy-haired girl she had seen in the carriage earlier, no one was. Her thoughts fell on Harry Potter, and after a few furtive glances at him, he looked as though he had given up on listening to McGonagall as well. The two sneaked looks at each other for the rest of the class, each wondering what the other was like for some reason unbeknownst to them.

"Now, in your third year you worked with these puffapods before, but this time we're going to harvest them from the edge of the Forbidden Forest," the voice of Professor Sprout rang out in the small valley she and her students stood in. "Oh, and this time, _please_ make sure you don't drop them. That would be rather unfortunate if they all bloomed… AGAIN…"

Malfoy wasn't paying much attention to Professor Sprout as he stood in the damp, dew-kissed grass. Crabbe and Goyle weren't far behind, as always, and were mulling around as Professor Sprout led them to the puffapod patch.

"It's right over here," she said briskly, hurrying much farther than the class to the small, green area. The class gradually followed after an eager wave from Sprout to the patch. The sky above them started to gray up, but the patch remained remarkably green given the current light changes.

"Gather 'round, now, gather 'round! Oh, look at the sky, it's going to rain!" Sprout was positively bursting with excitement at the mere thought of rain, it seemed.

'Maybe we'll have a magical storm,' thought Malfoy dismally, hoping that through lack of magic, they would at least have no classes. No such luck came as he and the other students assembled around the patch, all wanting very much not to be there. Malfoy rolled his eyes as everyone began to pick up various puffapods and walked away to lean on a nearby tree. Since Sprout was so enthralled with the process, she didn't seem to notice the blonde straying away from the group.

Silver eyes scanned the group condescendingly, filled with disgust. At least the Slytherins didn't have to group with the Gryffindors as usual; this was a pleasant change, although the Ravenclaws still had their downs. His thoughts drifted from the simple Herbology class when he felt a tugging at the hem of his robes. Drawing his wand out quickly, he searched the ground with a sweeping gaze. Nothing. Malfoy growled softly and didn't notice a snow-white ferret climb onto his shoulder, remarkably…

Laure picked up a puffapod tentatively, as if it would attack her at any moment. From behind her she could heard footsteps, so she turned to find none other than the pink-haired girl, now with pink and blue hair, one pink eye, and one blue eye. Laure blinked in surprise a little before realizing that…

"I'm a Metamorphmagus," she said with a wink. "I figured, that's why you were givin' me that look. You're Laure, right? I'm Jinx Lexington, 5th year Ravenclaw."

"Yes," she said with a smile, nodding. "Why are you here late?"

"I was sorting something out," said the newly-named Jinx in a voice that was almost too cool. "So, have I missed anything good?"

"Non," Laure shook her head and held up the puffapod. "What exactly do these do?"

"Puffapods?" the pink-and-blue-haired girl laughed. "Well, when you drop them, th-" She had been scanning the crowd, but she stopped talking immediately when one pink and one blue eye locked onto Draco Malfoy.

Laure looked slightly alarmed at the abrupt stop in speech. "Er… what's going on?"

"I can't believe this," Jinx practically growled. She wasn't all that mad, but had more the unpleasant anger that follows a bad day. "Ooh, when I get my hands on her…" She began to tromp through the grass, not taking care that she was stepping on several flowers on the way. Laure decided to tag along, wondering what the hell she could be so mad about.

Malfoy was leaning against a large tree with a ferret perched on his shoulder, oddly enough. Laure was reluctant to follow, but was close behind Jinx all the same.

Jinx muttered things such as, "I don't believe it" and "THAT'S where she's been". She walked right past Professor Sprout without the slightest bit of hesitation. She stopped in front of Malfoy, hands on her hips, multi-colored eyes glaring.

"So, Malfoy, where'd you get that ferret?" she said with a nod toward the small animal. The white ferret looked a bit panic stricken, and even looked as if it were trying to find somewhere to run off.

Malfoy, caught by surprise, had been stroking the ferret. He stopped, gave Jinx a patronizing glance, and said in his usual cool voice, "She's a gift. What's it to you?"

Jinx let out a skeptical, "Hmph," as the ferret scuttled into one of Malfoy's slender hands, bright blue eyes darting around fearfully. It let out a small squeak and hurried into the Forbidden Forest as fast as its little legs would carry it.

Jinx rolled her eyes and murmured, "Never mind," to no one in particular.

"So, what was the problem?" Laure ventured as they both made their way to the now almost-empty puffapod patch. She looked back at Malfoy, who leaned there, glowering with his arms crossed.

"That ferret," Jinx sighed, "is Alex."

**Woot! All done with second chapter… it's a little short, but I've been rather pressed for time over the last couple of days because of… stuff… ;) I hope you liked it (if anyone's even reading it yet -), and the third chapter will be up soon. **_ - Rreference to a fanfiction by English-Foxlette. Read it, it's good. Used with her permission._


	3. Newbies, Lights, Prefects

**Long delay. Sorry about that, I've been busy with school and music; Hehehe. Alright. Here's this, then.**

"A ferret? Alex?" said Laure, confused.

_Wow. And I thought I knew her a little better than this_, thought Laure half-jokingly.

Jinx nodded and made her way to an open spot near the patch. "_That's_ what she's been doing all summer! No wonder she never answered my repeated owls... augh. I knew she was working on something," she sounded annoyed, which didn't help the puffapod picking process. She was plucking the buds so fast she nearly dropped half of them, which, to say in the least, did not please Sprout.

* * *

Laure was sitting in a large armchair in the Ravenclaw common room, chin in her hand, and emitted a rather audible sigh of exhaustion. She stared into the fire with a dusty-looking book, some transfiguration homework, in her lap. It was already quite cold in the castle, which took the beach-going girl by surprise. So, as one could imagine, she had a throw blanket around her, and her chair was as close the fire as physically possible but far enough away that her robes wouldn't catch fire.

The portrait door swung open, and out of it came three older people Laure didn't know. One was a short, well-built, Asian boy whose black bangs protruded over his eyes, parallel to the ground, making him not too hard on the eyes. Another was a tall, athletic blonde who looked like she had some Italian in her. The third was a very short (probably five five or six) girl with ebony hair, and a complexion that looked as if it had been carved from marble.

All three of them proceeded to the couch a few seats away from Laure's chair, and were already talking vehemently to each other. Laure turned toward them slightly, all the better to hear what they were saying...

_I'm not eavesdropping_, Laure managed to convince herself. _Just... listening to what they're saying without their knowing. That's all._

"Oh, really?" said the ebony-haired girl. "I thought you two were still together. Why haven't you sent anything to me?"

"Uh, well," the guy said. "I, uh..."

"Forgot?" ebony-haired said with a sly smile. Laure turned back to the fire, but was still listening closely.

The two that had just spoken fell silent for a few moments, observing the fire and the rest of the room. The ebony-haired girl spotted Laure after a time and said, "Oh, hello! I didn't see you there. Actually, now that I think about it, I haven't... seen you... at all."

Laure blinked and looked at her. Expectant, dark brown eyes were staring back at her own. "Oh, right. Um..." she seemed at a loss for words, "...I am Laure, Laure Martin."

"That new fifth year?" inquired the blonde suddenly. Laure had not noticed that she had gained the others' attention as well.

"Oh," said the ebony-haired girl as she grinned in embarrassment. "I guess I _have_ seen you before, then..."

The French girl nodded. Finally, she was meeting more people!

"We're seventh years, maybe we can give you some advice," said ebony-haired half-jokingly. "Oh, I'm Myna Baeza, by the way. Short for Minerva, but I think that sounds too old, and it's also McGonagall's name."

"Leilani Merrill," said the blonde. "My parents are fixated on Hawaii. Myna's are obsessed with Greek and Roman names," she added with a shrug.

Myna nodded in agreement and rolled her eyes. "My sister's name is Xanthe, X-A-N-T-H-E. She hates it because it's so unusual."

Laure laughed a little. She understood siblings hating their names; her older brother, Benoît, wished he had had an American name and had, in fact, renamed himself "Brian".

The boy spoke up for the first time to Laure. "Laure? Where have I heard that..." he said half to himself, squinting as he tried to recall. "Anyway, I've got a sibling as well, Taro. He's in your year, I think. Maybe a year older... I'm Leo Yasu, anyhow."

"Oh, then I'll try to look for him at the Ravenclaw table," Laure said with a smile. "I should probably head to bed now, however. Perhaps I'll see you later?" she stood as she tossed the blanket onto the chair, and grabbed her book.

"Perhaps," agreed Myna with a grin. "'Bye, Laure."

"'Bye," she walked toward the girls' dormitories. Once she had reached the top of the stairs, she heard a door slam and saw an older boy tromp angrily past her without so much as a glance at her.

* * *

((Before Laure enters))

Alex sat on her bed, newly laid with a misty blue comforter that she had brought from home. She stared out of the open window, waiting for a certain letter to arrive; it would contain her registration form for a new broomstick.

Patiently she waited, as a cool breeze from blew in across her face, straying golden blonde locks. She sighed deeply, remembering how little sleep she had gotten because of her little project with Malfoy – and the comforter was starting to feel very inviting and deep. The dozing Scotswoman hardly noticed the sound of flapping wings drawing ever closer.

Oliver the kestrel landed on the window sill, clawing nervously from side to side with a slip of parchment tied to his left leg. When Alex didn't respond the irritated bird squawked loudly, demanding to know why she wasn't paying any attention to him.

Alex's eyes jolted open in alarm as the furious kestrel continued to screech. "Alright', alrigh'," she said finally, sitting up and removing the parchment from his leg with one deft hand, and rubbing her eyes with the other. The bird had a habit of flying onto Kyung-Soon's bedpost, so Alex didn't think it weird as he flew behind her.

She began to unroll the parchment when she heard a noise. Sounded like... stretching? Something stretching? Alex paused. She _knew_ that sound. It was all too familiar to a person with abilities like her. The animagus morphing sound. Slowly, she turned around only to see something that made her cheeks flush with rage.

"Hello, Alex," said a smooth Scottish voice that belonged to none other than

"Oliver WOOD!?" said the girl in a voice that sounded like frozen poison – cold, and deadly. "What are you doing here?? I should have known when you gave that bird to me... you were never in the same room with it..."

"Fine, thanks. I see you're doing well, too," said Oliver sarcastically as he leaned against Kyung-Soon's bedpost. He watched as Alex paced the room, arms crossed, eyes flashing dangerously. After a time, he finally said, "Why are you so beelin, anyway?"

She looked at him, slightly surprised. _That's true, why am I so mad?_ she thought. Yes, they broke up, but she _was_ overreacting a bit. Then the words "fear of abandonment" flashed in her head. That made a little more sense. "I, uh," Alex managed, her voice softer than she meant for it to be. She sat on her four-poster, trying to regain her anger. He should've been sorry, not cordial. "Well, because you left me for some Quidditch career! How am I supposed to deal with that, Oliver?"

The former object of Alex's affection paused and sighed, ruffling his hair with a very abrasive hand. He trod over the wood flooring over to her bed, large Quidditch-playing boots making a great deal of sound. Oliver sat down next to her and swallowed. "Alex," he said in as kind and gentle a voice as he could muster, "I never meant to hurt you. You know I would never intentionally hurt you."

Alex sighed, facing away from him slightly as she crossed her arms. _I don't have to be mean, I just have to be firm_, she told herself. "Continue."

The Hogwarts graduate bit the inside of his cheek. "You want to know the truth?" he said resolutely, eyebrows somewhat drawn down. "Alright, fine. I wanted a Quidditch career, sure. But I was never going to go through with it, cost being to _leave you behind_. My parents – my father, mostly - forced me to choose the path I'm on now. I admit, I went along with it at the time, but what he was saying made sense. Fame, fortune, skills... it sounded great. But I know now, Alex," he looked down, then back at her, eyes pleading for mercy, "that I should have chosen you. And... I- I'm sorry."

The girl rubbed her hands over her face in exasperation. "Oliver," Alex looked him straight in the eye. "I've got someone nipped already. It's too late to be apologizin' now, but I'm glad you did. It... helps, I suppose."

"Got someone nipped?" Oliver said suddenly, as if the sheer thought of her going steady with someone else were unthinkable. He quirked an eyebrow and stood quite suddenly. "Who?"

"Someone you probably don't know," Alex said with determination. With a nod to the door, she crossed her arms again and announced, "I want you out of here. Now."

He looked completely crushed and annoyed, so it was surprising when he said, "Fine," in a falsely calm voice as he headed out the door. His hand was on the handle when the blonde called, "Oy, don't bother bringin' me post anymore."

And with a final growl, Oliver left the room.

* * *

That was when Laure entered the room, clearly flustered. She looked at Alex, whose head was in her hands. "What... or perhaps, who... was that?"

"Oliver," said Alex's muffled voice. It didn't sound sad, just frustrated, and maybe even wistful.

"Oh," said Laure shortly. "OH." She swallowed and tossed her transfiguration book onto her bed, and sat on it so Alex was straight across from her. She interlaced her fingers with each other, making herself look like a schoolgirl as she waited for her friend to say something.

After what seemed ten minutes (but was probably one or two), Alex finally raised her head. Her sapphire eyes held volumes of anger and pain behind them; it was odd for Laure to see her this way, and she wasn't all that sure how to react. "Apparently," she said hotly, "he's an Animagus, too. My kestrel, in fact." Alex leaned the right side of her face on her hand and closed her eyes in pure exasperation.

Laure grimaced slightly and shut her eyes, shaking her head, "Je suis desolée." Her eyes popped open for a moment and then she added hastily, "I mean, apologies. Many of them."

"'Sorry. I'm sorry,' is what we usually say," the Scotswoman corrected as she smiled faintly. "Anyway, thanks. I'm probably just going to go to bed now."

"Alright, I'm going to go to bed as well, I am very tired," Laure declared as she went to the foot of her bed to open her trunk. As she pulled out her pajamas, she noticed Alex watching her, gears in her head clearly turning; the girl's cerulean eyes were squinted slightly, and she was moving her mouth around as if chewing her cheek.

"Actually," the other girl said in a low voice, "I think I might go down to the stadium to play some Quidditch."

Laure looked surprised. Why would she want to play Quidditch at this hour? Weren't there rules about being outside the castle late at night, let alone out of the common room? _I guess she knows the school best_, thought the French girl as she shrugged. "Do you want me to come along?"

Alex considered the idea for a minute, then shook her head. "No, I think I'll be alright. And, I'm sure someone will be there this time at night. Probably Filch, but oh well."

"Filch?"

"The school's caretaker. He's almost anywhere you're not supposed to be, right at that time," Alex opened her trunk and pulled out what looked like a Nimbus Two-Thousand-And-One, walked to the door, and with her hand on the handle she said, "Goodnight, Laure."

"Bonne nuit, goodnight," she watched as the blonde left the room. The girl tried to get comfortable so she could get all the questions she had out of her head with the wonderful escape of sleep.

* * *

Torrey sighed. She was honored to be a prefect, but it sure got boring sometimes, especially at night. The security had been upped at Hogwarts, ironically, by sending out its prefects to stroll around the grounds until at most ten o'clock. Tonight she had the Quidditch field, along with the other Ravenclaw prefect, Shane Galesburg, who was nowhere to be seen. _Irresponsible_, thought Torrey dismally, _I guess it's just me tonight_.

She made her way to the outer part of the stadium, and then walked through the archway where the house teams usually entered the field. Empty. _Well, it's always empty. Why should tonight be any different..._

But was it empty? Aside from the hoops and some playing equipment left there by the Slytherin team (tsk tsk!), Torrey thought she could see no one. She began to leave when she heard something. Rustling in the bushes, perhaps? But, there were no bushes on the Quidditch field, only six hoops and several boxes to watch from. The girl shrugged it off and continued into the archway. She walked straight through until she plowed into something. No, not something... some_one_.

Torrey looked up, but couldn't see anything she had run into. Hell, she couldn't see anything at all. It hadn't gotten darker, had it? She stood, wiping herself off briskly with her palms. The girl almost jumped out of her skin when she heard, "Could you _go_ any faster? Are you all sixes and sevens??"

_Oh. _she sighed, it was only-

"Shane, you gave me such a fright for a moment there," growled Torrey. How dumb of her, not to realize who it could be...

"Sorry!" said Shane in a half-guilty, half-vicious whisper. "I'm a little late, I know, but you know Snape always gives a lot of homework on the first day!"

Forgetting he couldn't see her, she rolled her eyes. The Ravenclaw prefect sighed once more and said, "Alright, just be there the next time, otherwise there won't be a next time for either of us."

"Really?" he sounded surprised. "Our reps are on the line for this? I didn't know that... er, okay, let's just go to the next station, then, I guess..."

The two continued through the archway and to the castle again as Torrey corrected slyly, "We're only assigned a station per night, you know."

* * *

Around forty minutes had passed in the common room, perhaps fifty (who's counting?). Laure, now in a white nightgown with robin's egg blue Bs scattered around on it, still lay on her bed dozing quietly as the other girls (save Torrey and Alex) started to file in. By the French girl's appearance, they had presumed her to be asleep, and had followed suit soon enough. But the fact of the matter was that Laure was indeed very awake.

_I wonder where Torrey and Alex are_, Laure's fingers intertwined with each other as she laid them on her chest. _I could understand possibly half an hour at the most. But this long? There must be something wrong..._ She started to feel nervous again, like she had once at King's Cross Station. But there was something a little deeper in this worry – this time, it wasn't for herself, but for her friends, and it was as profound as if she'd known them her entire life.

The girl stood, shivering slightly in the cold. Though the floors were not stone, the wood still got fairly chilly. She walked over to the window at the path to the Quidditch field, only to confirm her fears; no one was on it. With a sigh Laure sat, right there at the window, with her arms moving up and down each other to create friction. She'd never realized how cozy those Hogwarts beds were; she was in a calm state just thinking about the warm comforters.

Which is why Laure nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the door handle turn. Alex, then Torrey quickly burst into the room looking as if they had seen a ghost, when they became aware that their colleagues were asleep. Torrey nodded toward her bed and mouthed something that Laure couldn't understand. It must have been something about going to bed, however, because right after that Torrey ripped off her robes and, shivering, pulled on her royal blue, flannel PJs.

Alex did not go straight to her bed as her friend had; instead, she placed her Nimbus Two-Thousand-And-One so it was leaning on her four-poster. She sat on her blue comforter, deeply breathing for a few moments before she noticed Laure in the corner. The French girl swallowed hard and stood, motioning toward the door to go to the common room. The other girl nodded and stood as well, getting ready to leave the frigid room.

The two marched down the spiral staircase together into the much warmer common room, and into some cozy chairs with throw pillows. The fire was still quite alive, the only source of warmth in the room. Alex clutched a throw pillow and tossed it skittishly around a little, staring at Laure wide-eyed.

Laure cleared her throat and prompted, "May I ask what's the matter with you?"

The other nodded and sighed. Placing the pillow on her lap, she said, "Want to hear the whole thing?"

"Er... yes," said the French girl, leaning back to listen.

"Well, uh, you see..." Alex looked down for a moment, as if gathering the details for her story. "I was walking down to the Quidditch field, and Torrey and Shane – Shane Galesburg, by the way, the other prefect – passed me. Torrey offered to come with me down there, so I took the offer. Basically, we got to the field and she threw a few Quaffles to me so I could practice. She even had a turn. But what freaked us out..." the girl was now on the edge of her seat, as she had moved about a foot away from it. Her hands were in front of her, ready to make any wild gesticulations. "... is this bright, eerie, white light we saw. And it wasn't just any white light, like from a wand. It was downright sinister. And it started to like, come toward us, really, REALLY slowly... and... ugh." She shuddered.

Laure paused with her hand on her mouth, a puzzling expression on her face. "So, a light scared you? Is that why you are so pale?" This was saying a lot, as the girl presently across from her had quite a tan.

The girl sighed in exasperation. "Aye, it doesn't sound scary. It probably doesn't even sound logical, but I HAVE a witness, and if you want me to go get her, I'll-"

"Alright, alright!" the French girl put up her hands. "You win! But that was all? Just the light you saw?"

There was a silence for some time during which Alex had a particularly guilty look on her face. "Okay, well, there's also been... well, let me tell you this first. During the summer holiday, I came here to practice Quidditch, usually at night. The last few days of the summer when I practiced there, alone, I heard these odd sounds from the outside of the stadium. I'm not sure if there's a connection."

"Sounds?"

"Aye, sounds - kind of quiet, just barely capable of being heard."

They both fell silent to think about the information that had just been dealt. Finally, Laure said in as calming a voice as she could, "Alex, perhaps we should head to bed, get some rest, and-"

Right at that moment, a small group of fourth years (obvious by their small size) – four or five boys, and perhaps three girls - burst into the room, all panting heavily, but looking gratified, and holding something. All of them collapsed onto the largest couch, which they all had to squeeze to fit into. One of the boys, a Filipino fourth year, had unruly black hair that was above his shoulders, but longer than most boys' hair. His eyes, golden brown in color, looked as if they were almost permanently in smile form, as did his mouth. It was exaggerated even more when he said, laughing a bit, in a most out-of-breath manner, "What do you know... your way _was_ faster, Garth."

Another panting boy nodded, answering the other. Garth was a tad pale from running, and there was vast knowledge behind his hazel eyes, which were concealed by glasses. He held his finger up as if to make a point, and said (after catching his breath a bit more), "I've looked through this place a million times, and I just knew that would be a better way to go..."

Still another boy looked quizzically at Garth, "Tevira Statue on the fourth corridor – who would have known?" This one had wheat-colored hair, kind of a large mouth, and bright blue eyes. He said nothing else as he crammed a Pumpkin Pastie into that large mouth.

It was then that Laure noticed that the things the younger people were holding were Pumpkin Pasties, and other assorted treats... did this have something to do with where they had been?

The fourth years had not noticed that they had drawn the attention of the two girls in the room – in fact, they probably didn't even know they were there. They all fell silent for a few moments, and Laure observed the rest of the people there.

Two girls had dark brown hair, and intriguing brown eyes, and both were fit; they were the only two not really panting that much. The third girl had hazel eyes and light brown hair, which was tied into a tight ponytail. She was also quite thin, and had a pleasant face. One of the last couple of boys was a little pudgy, with ash blonde hair, and he was a little short. And, finally, the last boy seemed to be of Asian descent, although not completely. His eyes were the most captivating of all; they looked almost Egyptian, seemingly thick, but natural black lines around them, and had this odd... "knowing" behind them.

Finally, one of them noticed the two girls sitting patiently beside them – Garth, actually – "Oh!" he said finally, pushing up his glasses a bit. "'Lo there. You're Alex, right?"

Slightly taken aback by his sudden speech, Alex said, "Um... yeah, I am, Alex Hunt... would you mind introducing yourselves? I don't really... know the fourth years as well." It was true; mostly, she knew those above her grade as they were the ones she relied on most, even though she did know a few third years.

Garth nodded and smiled. "I'm Garth Medwin." He began to chomp on a Licorice Wand.

The boy who had first spoken, spoke up again. "Jake."

"Garner," mumbled the third boy through Pumpkin Pastie. He nodded toward the Asian boy, "He'ff Ian Camter."

The brown-haired girls spoke up at the same time, nearly, and burst out laughing. How jovial their collective laughter was... "I'm Latona, and this is Cybil," said one, who had very short hair, and could have easily been mistaken for a boy. The other, newly dubbed Cybil, had hair above her shoulders as well, but not "boy-short."

"I'm Katry," said the remaining girl with a halfhearted smile. She looked very, very worn out. In a momentary bout of silence, she removed her hair tie and let her hair cascade onto her shoulders. This made her look even more tired, as her hair was a bit tousled, and it could be plainly seen now.

Finally, after a chewing Drooble's Best Blowing Gum for quite some time, the last boy said, "Arden Lowell."

The long introduction process took nearly five minutes with all the stalling. Laure blinked after having so many names thrown at her at once. "My name's Laure Martin."

Some of the younger kinds nodded, some went back to eating their various spoils. Laure turned back to Alex, who was still watching the fourth years, and continued with their much interrupted conversation.

"Er... anyway..." the French girl struggled to find her words again, "...maybe we should just think about this tomorrow. We should tell K-Soon and Jinx as well, even."

The other fifth year only shrugged, and said no more. They both went back up the spiral stairs, and left the fourth years there to tend to the crackling fire, which began to burn down to ashes.

**Alrighty! Good times... I know I forced a lot of characters on you, but there's a character guide up soon... er, there WILL be a character guide up soon ::coughs:: Yup. So... yeah... I have no time, so don't think four will be up soon XX That doesn't mean you should stop reading though! XD**


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